Colonial History of Latin America

In order to understand why Liberation Theology developed in Latin America, we must first come to grips with its colonial and neo-colonial history.  As has been pointed out before, Liberation Theology did not emerge in a vacuum. There were circumstances and reasons as to why we see its emergence and development in this corner of the world.  In essence, we will note that Liberation Theology is both an anti-colonial theology which denounces the status quo of economic, military, and political imperialism, as well as a post-colonial theology which seeks to address the concerns and issues prevalent in those societies which either are sovereign or in the process of becoming sovereign.

In his book, "The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures," Marshall C. Eakins says "Following the lead of Columbus, the Spanish swept across the Caribbean within a generation, conquering and destroying the native peoples in their path.  The Spanish moved through the conquest of islands what I call a 'stepping stone process.'  They would conquer an island, establish a base of operations, and then move outward from there in a step-by-step pattern, Hispaniola, for example, becoming the staging ground for invading Cuba, and then Cuba for the conquest of Mexico.  From island to island, the Spanish replicated the original process in Hispaniola, while adding new features to respond to the different lands and peoples they encountered.  In a pattern that would be reproduced across Latin America for the next century, the conquerors divided the spoils-plunder, land, and Indians among themselves.  The conquest operated on something of a senior system.  The senior members of the expeditions got the best spoils, and those who got the smaller shares, along with those who arrived in the later waves of conquistadors, were pushed outward to find their own riches and to conquer their own lands.  Unlike the Portuguese, who consciously set out to build their factories, or trading posts, the Spanish came to conquer, pillage, and then settle as colonists.  After the initial conquest, they recognized that all future wealth would have to come from the land, and the key to producing on the land was the exploitation of non-European labor (Eakin, p. 62)."

When put into a historical perspective, Liberation Theology is a theology which emerges within the framework of genocide, land-grabbing colonization, and slave labor.  It develops against the backdrop of conquest and eventual marginalization.  Liberation Theology is what Luis Rivera-Pagan calls "Theology from the Margins," i.e a theology which is generated among conquered and marginalized people.

Columbus's arrival brought a new economic system that also changed the socio-cultural organization of the indigenous people.  The native women were no longer equal to the men; they were raped and taken as objects of possession by the colonizers as a means to subjugate the population.  The Church allowed only men as the leaders of religion, and only white Spanish men at that; not even the colonizer's own mixed blood offspring were acceptable as servants of God.  Five hundred years later, women ae still submissive to men (Lydia Hernandez in an article "Even Today What Began Five Hundred Years Ago."  New Face of the Church in Latin America, Guillermo Cook, ed.  Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1994, p. 19).

As the military conquest drew to a close in the sixteenth century, the Spanish and Portuguese turned to making their new possession productive long-term enterprises.  Cultivation and exploitation of the land became the primary objective of the developing colonial regimes. Land without labor, however, was useless to the colonizers.  The populations of Spain and Portugal were not very large, perhaps some 10 to 11 million, combined in the sixteenth century.  The monarchies of both had little interest in a large out-migration of their subjects; rather, they needed them to provide an adequate and compliant labor force in Iberia.  Mexico and Peru, on the other hand, had populations that were each possibly double that of Spain and Portugal combined.  Quite literally, the Americas were built from the sweat and blood of African and indigenous people.  And much of the economic expansion in Europe after 1500 was fueled by the wealth of the Americas produced by this sweat and blood.  Out of this coercive labor system emerged the most burdensome legacy of the colonial period-the large landed estate (Eakin, p. 96).

As we continue to examine these negative historical realities in Latin America, we can then begin to understand why our theology is referred to as "a theology of liberation."  It is a theology which seeks to advocate from liberation from the oppressive structures which have come into being as a result of imperialistic conquest, genocide, colonization, and slavery.

In the next essay, we will focus on the impact of U.S.A, neo-colonialism in Latin America.  The impact of imposition of the U.S.A. structures and subsequent policies will be examined, as we seek to evaluate the need for a theology of liberation in this region.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona